Tafseer of Crouching · Al-Jaathiya · 45:24
And they say, "There is not but our worldly life; we die and live, and nothing destroys us except time." And they have of that no knowledge; they are only assuming.
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
Explanation of the meaning of His word, the Exalted: وَقَالُوا مَا هِيَ إِلا حَيَاتُنَا الدُّنْيَا نَمُوتُ وَنَحْيَا وَمَا يُهْلِكُنَا إِلا الدَّهْرُ وَمَا لَهُمْ بِذَلِكَ مِنْ عِلْمٍ إِنْ هُمْ إِلا يَظُنُّونَ (24) — "And they say: 'There is nothing but our worldly life; we die and we live, and nothing destroys us except time.' But they have no knowledge of that; they do nothing but conjecture" (45:24).
Allah, whose praise is exalted, says: these polytheists (mushrikīn) about whom the report has just been given said: there is no life except this worldly life of ours in which we find ourselves, there exists no other life than this — out of denial of the resurrection after death.
As Bishr related to us, he said: Yazīd related to us, he said: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda ( وَقَالُوا مَا هِيَ إِلا حَيَاتُنَا الدُّنْيَا ): that is to say — by my life — this is the saying of the polytheists among the Arabs.
And His word ( نَمُوتُ وَنَحْيَا ): we die and we live, and our children live on after us. Thus they made the life of their children after them into a life of their own, because they spring from them and are a part of them, as though through the life of their children they themselves were still alive. That is comparable to the saying of the people: "He has not died who leaves behind a son such as so-and-so" — because through the keeping alive of his remembrance he lives on, as though he were still alive and had not died. Another interpretation is also possible, namely that the meaning is: "we live and we die," by way of bringing the life forward before the death, as one says "I rose and I sat down," by which is meant "I sat down and I rose." The Arabs do this in particular with the wāw (the conjunction "and"), when they wish to report that two matters have taken place or will take place, without intending to report that one takes place before the other; then they sometimes place the later of the two events ahead of the earlier one. So it is here too, for it was not the intent to report that the life takes place before the death; therefore the mention of death was placed ahead of the mention of life, since the intent was to report that they are at one time alive and at another time dead.
And His word ( وَمَا يُهْلِكُنَا إِلا الدَّهْرُ ): Allah, whose praise is exalted, says, reporting about these polytheists, that they said: nothing destroys us and causes us to perish except the passing of the nights and the days and the length of the lifespan — out of denial on their part that they would have a Lord who causes them to perish and destroys them.
It has been mentioned that in the recitation of ʿAbd Allāh (Ibn Masʿūd) it reads: ( وَمَا يُهْلِكُنَا إِلا دَهْرٌ يَمُرُّ ) — "and nothing destroys us except a time that passes by."
And in accordance with what we have said about that, the people of interpretation (ahl al-taʾwīl) have spoken.
* Mention of who said that:
Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, he said: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, he said: ʿĪsā related to us; and al-Ḥārith related to me, he said: al-Ḥasan related to us, he said: Warqāʾ related to us — both of them — on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid ( وَمَا يُهْلِكُنَا إِلا الدَّهْرُ ): he said: time (al-zamān).
Ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, he said: Ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His word ( وَمَا يُهْلِكُنَا إِلا الدَّهْرُ ): he said: that is what the polytheists of the Quraysh said ( وَمَا يُهْلِكُنَا إِلا الدَّهْرُ ): except the lifespan.
It has been mentioned that this verse was sent down because the people of polytheism (shirk) said: that which destroys us and causes us to perish is time (al-dahr) and the age (al-zamān). Then they cursed that which caused them to perish and destroyed them, while supposing that they were thereby cursing time and the age. Then Allah, mighty and exalted is He, said to them: It is I who cause you to perish and destroy you, not time and the age, and you have no knowledge of that.
* Mention of the narration about that, after whom it has said it:
Abū Kurayb related to us, he said: Ibn ʿUyayna related to us, on the authority of al-Zuhrī, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab, on the authority of Abū Hurayra, on the authority of the Prophet ﷺ, who said: "The people of the time of ignorance (jāhiliyya) used always to say: it is only the night and the day that destroy us, and it is he who destroys us and causes us to die and causes us to live. Then Allah said in His Book: ( وَقَالُوا مَا هِيَ إِلا حَيَاتُنَا الدُّنْيَا نَمُوتُ وَنَحْيَا وَمَا يُهْلِكُنَا إِلا الدَّهْرُ ) — they curse time. Then Allah, blessed and exalted is He, said: the son of Adam injures Me by cursing time, while I am time; in My hand lies the ordaining, I cause the night and the day to revolve.'"
ʿImrān ibn Bakkār al-Kulāʿī related to us, he said: Abū Rawḥ related to us, he said: Sufyān ibn ʿUyayna related to us, on the authority of al-Zuhrī, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab, on the authority of Abū Hurayra, on the authority of the Prophet ﷺ, something similar.
Yūnus ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to me, he said: Ibn Wahb informed us, he said: Yūnus ibn Yazīd related to me, on the authority of Ibn Shihāb, he said: Abū Salama ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān informed me, he said: Abū Hurayra said: I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say: "Allah, the Exalted, has said: the son of Adam curses time, while I am time; in My hand lie the night and the day.'"
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, he said: Salama related to us, on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq, on the authority of al-ʿAlāʾ ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Abū Hurayra, that the Prophet ﷺ said: "Allah says: I asked My servant for a loan and he did not give Me, and My servant cursed Me; he says: 'O what a calamitous time!' — while I am time.'"
Ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, he said: Ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda, on the authority of al-Zuhrī, on the authority of Abū Hurayra, on the authority of the Prophet ﷺ: "Verily, Allah has said: let none of you say: 'O what a misfortune of time!', for verily, I am time; I cause its night and its day to revolve, and when I will, I take both away.'"
Yaʿqūb related to me, he said: Ibn ʿUlayya related to us, on the authority of Hishām, on the authority of Abū Hurayra, he said: "Do not curse time, for verily, Allah is time."
( وَمَا لَهُمْ بِذَلِكَ مِنْ عِلْمٍ إِنْ هُمْ إِلا يَظُنُّونَ ) — "But they have no knowledge of that; they do nothing but conjecture." Allah, whose praise is exalted, says: these polytheists, who say "there is nothing but our worldly life, we die and we live, and nothing destroys us except time," have no knowledge of what they say about that — that is to say, no certain knowledge — for they say that as guesswork, without any report having come to them from Allah and without their possessing any proof of its truth. ( إِنْ هُمْ إِلا يَظُنُّونَ ) — Allah, whose praise is exalted, says: they are merely in a conjecture about that and in doubt; He reports about them that they are in confusion regarding their own conviction concerning the reality of that which they utter with their tongues.
